A Beautiful Hike + Yummy Apple Dip!

We decided to take the kids on a little hike yesterday. I love to take the kids hiking (exercise in disguise!) and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. I also wanted to enjoy the fall foliage before it was too late. 😉

We decided to go up to Bell Canyon, which is just south of Little Cottonwood Canyon in Sandy, Utah. It is such a great hike and perfect for kids! It is quite steep and strenuous, but it’s not too long. It’s such a rewarding hike. It offers gorgeous views of the Salt Lake Valley, a fun little foot bridge with a stream (sometimes raging…be careful!) running underneath and a beautiful reservoir nestled amongst mountains and trees. I also love this hike because it’s very accessible; it’s just outside of the city. You don’t have to drive up a big canyon to get to it. It’s great.

All the kids had a great time! My 4 year old and 9 year old led the pack. We had to keep telling them to slow down a bit! Even my sweet 2 year old had a ball. He hiked most of the way up by himself and loved every minute. When we got to the reservoir, we stopped and explored a while. We’ve had a very dry summer so the reservoir was A LOT smaller than I’ve ever seen it! It made it fun though because the kids were able to wander around a little more.

Here are some pics from our adventure….Warning: I look quite scary in these pics. My outfit is very “hikey” and I did not do the hair at all, but because of the beauty of these pictures I’m going to “take one for the team” and share them with you anyway 😉 ….

We had a great time. The only “issue” we had was when we realized our 4 year old was hiking around the reservoir with one shoe and one very brown sock on! When we asked him about his missing shoe, he told us “Oh, I lost it in the mud!” We were thinking….”Whaaa??? And you didn’t say anything!?” He didn’t seem to mind at all. Weird. Soooo, we all had to search for a while to find his shoe. Fortunately, I found it. I had to laugh when I saw his cute little shoe completely engulfed in the mud! Too funny!

Moving on…..

The other day I created a very yummy apple dip! It is so NOT gourmet, but it IS very tasty! Here’s the “recipe” (if you want to call it that!)…

Peanut Butter Graham Apple Dip
(makes 3 servings)

1 full graham cracker (4 small little rectangles)
3 T. Natural Peanut Butter; creamy
2 small apples; cut into slices

Put the graham cracker in a small Ziploc bag and crush it with a rolling pin.